The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-27
would make the procession from church on
Easter Sunday look like st. Patrick's day
parade.

Some of our high society got odd instruction
and amusement from May Fortescre, tho En-
glish actress and sentimental plaintiff just be-
fore her departure this week for home She is
beanty, be it understood, and her cleanly law
suit against Lord Garmoyle has forced her into
fashionable consideration. She may have failed.
as they assert, in her professional tour of Amer
lea, but her positively last appearance before an
audience was triumph. Bernhardt is playing
hero She freakishly insists upon making the in
ternssions between acts half an hour long The
people resent this trifiing, and Manager Abbey
is seriously annoyed, because it hurts the bus-
ness Fortescue has been under his direction.
too She told him that she wished to see the
great French woman act
"I1l give you box" he said, IF you will wear
good clothes, look your prettiest and cit at the
front, SO that the audience will have something
to divert them during the long waits"
LISA bargain" replied Fortescue. II will
agree to entertain the people 'twixt acts"
She did, with vengeance She wore white
hufhly. and carried an immense fan of the same
color That made her conspicuous. for it is not
the custom in New York to don such clothes for
the drama. though it is done elaborately at the
opera She seated herself at the front of lower
proscenium box, facing the audience and pro-
ceeded to impersonato vivaeious. ingenious
maiden 1t was as bold undertaking as any
body ever saw in theater; il was marvel of
cemonstrative pantomine; picturesque poses
| and extravagant gesticulation alternated; a oevy
OF fellows supported her tableaux. and the
amazed and amused spectators found that the
tedium of the half hour intervals was beeuiled.
But 1t would be pity it the Young girls present
We're to take pattern of Fortescue and behave in
| that extraordinary fashion at the theater.
The efforts Of mankind will never bring about
the abolition of the hat in the theater There
are numberless reasons, each more potent than
the first, why the idea is impracticable. Those
| women whom Washington Bishop styles car
riage people" will take kindly enough, as they
always have done, to the fashion; but the great
majority who patronize the elevated roads and
| the street-cars, will never yield Bonnets that
have been adjusted with infinite care and pa
| tience are not going to be twitched off and sur
| rendered to the tender mercy of dressng-room
attendant, to be ticketed and jammed shelves.
Then, think of the rush and crush to recover
| your property with an impatient husband or the
other fellow, cooling his heels outside while you
| frantically struggle for an inch of the looking
| glass to see whether your hat is cooked on four
| hairs quite of your head. Why the
| thought is preposterous; but the grand
reason is this. Like the man who was accused
| of owning a cannibal of a dog-he claimed his
doc couldn't have bitten anyone because his
teeth were gone, because he was amiable be-
| cause he was tied up, and because he never had
dog. So, after all the small reasons come il,
the weghtiest is that in the present style of wom-
ans dress. she can no more put on her nat with
her corsage buttoned, take it off. than she can
stand on her head The next article that goes
on lady, after her skirts. is inv arably her bon
net After dress waist is buttoned you can no
| more put your hands to your head than trussed
| turkey scratch its wish bono. The poky lit
tie dressing room Of a theatre would have to be
an undressing room OF immense capacity to ena-
| bic a manager to enjoy q are-headed audience.
| The only women in favor of the innovation
| are the wardrobe women What a
| heavenly time they would have trying on hats
No, dear men: your superior scientific attain
| ments level tremendous Instructions; the rocks
| on Manhattan island hide their diminished
heads; vest forests fall at your command; the
tags of your enemies lie in the dust; great op
posing forces that rear themselves against you
give way; but the lat of woman proudly fiaunts
at the masthead, and it will fly there till the
end. William the Bald and John the Baldes,
will have to take their gimpses of Md'le Pas
seul's tantalizing toes through the waving featn
ers OF MatilGas bonnet and the meshes OF
Marias millinery. Women will never sit bare
headed and expose their well-natched locks te
such hair-pins as the dear men while they have
an ounce Of sense in their noddles.
1t is a curious study to see the rapidly agine
Bernhardt play the young, eiddy and fascinat
ing girl. Even in the hey day of her youth sh.
could not have been in any sense prepossesslng
A large nose, lantern -jawed. coloress face car
rotty hair, and figure that justihes all the ex
travagant jokes about its eanness; these mus
have been as strange to look at as they are now
but years have added to them the marks of ole
age, that the actress takes no apparent pains K
conceal So far as her makeup is concerned
Bernhardt comes upon the stage without any
except when feigning mortal sickness; then tn.
natural pallor of her cheeks ls heightened BY
powder to ghastly, moreue- gray In dress sh,
displays al infinite variety. within well defined
limitations. That is in texture and combina
tions of color. she has the world TO draw from
and never fails to give a vision of something
new and beautiful; but in style, he
garments are almost always distinguished
by cut that does as much
as art can to disguise the attenuation Of he
shape. She rarely confesses in her dress tha
she has waist. and perhaps. if the truth wer
known, she hasn't any. And as for bust, tha
also is an unknown quantity. Her young girl
then. if placed in the. corner wa.lfower
would only excite rldlcule There man,
successful actresses who interesting if the,
but maintain graceful repose on the stage
Bernhart is not one of these. The critics hav
o told over and over again the measure of her sue
, cess, so | am not concerned with that; mayh
they think her success is negative, even failure
: whatever it may be, have been Interested sin,
! ply in observing how she obtains It, In Frou
i Frou. as all theater goers know. she has to pla
: the part of light-headed good excer
= tionally fascinating girl. When she first burst
d upon the scene, she has the conventional rid
;. ing habit She dashes to table, seizes q news
- | paper. crushes it in her hands. tears it an
: throws herself upon sofa, painting and laugh
: ing. She remains but few minutes and durin
IL that time is in almost constant action. Sh
Il never allows her face to be passive. Her fea
ures are always expressive Of some emotion,
u nothing more than a smile Of eayety. When sh
has gone one has not recovered sufficiently frol
the vivacious impression of her entrance to r,
5. alize just how she gained her effect. To sho
how she makes the evident old woman disa,